Filtering by Tag: Tyla Abercrumbie

“Sweat,” the 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Lynn Nottage that opened Monday in a crisply directed Ron OJ Parson Chicago premiere production at Goodman Theatre, is set in Reading, Pennsylvania, a steel mill town in the midst of the cyclical industrial turmoil that threatens blue-collar families in communities across America.

The action occurs at pivot points in 2000 and 2008, bookends that allow for the dramatic elements of the storyline to evolve in vignettes that initially include parole officer Evan (Ronald L. Conner) in meetings with Jason (Mike Cherry) and Chris (Edgar Miguel Sanchez) who have recently been released from prison.

The livelihood of every character in Nottage’s compelling story is tied to the prosperity of the Olstead steel tubing plant. In the opening scene set eight years earlier at a local bar managed by Stan (Keith Kupferer), three women who have worked together on the factory floor since high school–Chris’s mother, Cynthia (Tyla Abercrumbie) who is African-American, Jason’s mother, Tracey (Kirsten Fitzgerald), and their over-served wingman Jessie (Chaon Cross)–are celebrating Tracey’s birthday. Stan’s Colombian employee Oscar (Steve Casillas) is present, as well as Cynthia’s ex-husband, Brucie (André Teamer), whose life and familial relationships have spiraled out of control since he lost his job.

A supervisor opening at the mill has everyone talking. Cynthia views the promotion as a chance to finally leave the floor and applies. However, when she gets the job, the friction riles her relationship with Tracey and Jessie, who know that a change in their work association will be fatal to the friendship. It all starts to unravel when a notice is distributed in Spanish; lines are drawn and tempers begin to flare.

The sizzling emotional interaction of Abercrumbie and Fitzgerald–alternating between sisterhood and disdain for one another–provide the show’s powerful core performances. Kupferer is terrific in the role of the former mill worker whose career was cut short due to injury. The entertaining Cross spends most of the evening delightfully inebriated, while the friendships between the women is mirrored in the fine portrayals of the sons by Cherry and Sanchez, who, with Casillas, raise the dramatic tension of the piece to a fever pitch.

The creative design team–Kevin Depinet (set), Mara Blumenfeld (costumes), Keith Parham (lighting) and Richard Woodbury (sound)–have created a stunner for this production that evokes the pre-911 post-market collapse span of the era as a defining moment for generations of factory workers whose lives and world view have been irreparably altered. Nottage’s profoundly insightful work reminds us of the collateral damage that hateful dialogue and pent-up rage can inflict on others–a stark and valuable lesson for our time.

As Dominique Morisseau’s “Pipeline” begins, Nya (Tyla Abercrumbie) has just been informed that her son Omari (Matthew Elam) has had a serious altercation at a boarding school and is about to be expelled. Nya, an inner-city public school administrator, tries gamely to get through the day as she reaches out to her ex-husband and makes plans to bring her son home. In the meantime, we meet Laurie (Janet Ulrich Brooks), an instructor who has returned to her classes after a harrowing confrontation with a student. Laurie makes a pact with the school security guard, Dun (Ronald L. Conner), to protect her in the future.

In and through Morisseau’s insightful story, deftly directed by Cheryl Lynn Bruce at Victory Gardens Theater, runs the fear of reprisal for anyone who takes a stand against prejudice and discrimination in school systems and what effect those actions will have on the future of the students’ lives. Omari’s impassioned defense, first to his girlfriend, Jasmine (Aurora Real de Asua), and then to his mother and father, Xavier (Mark Spates Smith), begins to rip apart his family—his rebellious attitude the cause of Nya’s growing stress and anxiety. From their perspective, Omari is in the pipeline toward only one dark destination. That reality has everyone worried.

The heart-wrenching performances of Abercrumbie and Brooks, whose mounting frustration at working in a challenging and often hostile educational system that drives one to drink and the other to the edge of her sanity, are raw and compelling. It seems that no matter how much care and attention they invest, situations will grow out of control in an instant with dire consequences.

Elam’s Omari believes he has every right to be self-righteous in the face of bigotry and persecution, so he casts aside the safe harbor that his family projects would be a better fit than the lawless unknown of the streets. And, as a role model, the all-business Xavier lost his son long ago—shown as a poignant moment of realization that Smith delivers powerfully as Xavier recognizes that it was largely his past choices that have brought the family to where they are today.

The character study also provides fine opportunities for de Ausa, whose edgy portrayal of Jasmine plays particularly well in a confrontation with Abercrumbie, and for Conner, who has more than security on his mind.

This piece is a conversation starter about attitudes between children and parents, students and administrators and a host of other elements in our at-risk communities and across our educational systems. It asks the questions: How do we know where to draw the line on discipline and behavior if the social lines of toleration keep wavering? How does social media impact those areas? And, what is the impact on our children if we do not get it right the first time? Although there is a hopeful conclusion, Morisseau drives home the point that before answers emerge, everyone must really listen to each other, or face the grim reality that it may already be too late.